


to the shore

by lapisin



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, mermaid lapis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 08:10:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5736109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lapisin/pseuds/lapisin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s not often Lapis and Pearl get to see each other. This is one of those special occasions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to the shore

**Author's Note:**

> Here's some touch-feely sappy pearlapis smut because ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

****The dock was quiet at dawn, a sleepy blanket of fog pulled over the harbor. A few sailors and fisherman milled about their boats as they prepared for the day ahead of them. Packing a lunch, testing their lines, double checking their tackle boxes. **  
**

Pearl sat at the edge of the water surrounded by a slew of empty bottles. She had not returned to her house last night, choosing to watch the sun rise on the peer. Her eyes hung heavy and her body drooped with exhaustion. She took a lazy sip of rum, licked her parched lips, then set the bottle down.

Her feet, dangling, sent ripples across the calm water. She felt as though something was waiting for her. Perhaps the headache that was sure to follow this heavy bout of drinking. Until then, the captain was solemn. Patient.

Since her last voyage, she was struck numb. Garnet and Amethyst did their best to cheer her, as did Steven and Greg, but it only helped so much. She missed the open sea, the adventure, the stormy wind rattling the sails.

Most of all, she missed the strange creature that saved her life. Pearl dreamt of her touch, longed for her lips, and woke up shaking and sweating. Lapis left her in torture. She came to the harbor late at night or early in the morning. Pearl had started enjoying her company. But she had not seen her in quite some time.

The mist cleared, only to be replaced with dark gray clouds. It was a heavy morning. She stared at the ripples in the water until they made her dizzy and fixed her gaze on the horizon. Something brushed against her leg and she dismissed it tiredly. Seaweed often cropped up on the lower docks. She took another swig of alcohol.

A few minutes later, the sensation was back. Insistent, clinging, brushing against her. She kicked impatiently. It was too early in the morning to wrangle with this seaweed. Her foot was forced still, and a pair of hands curled around her calf.

Definitely not seaweed. Pearl shivered. She was too scared to look down.

“How impolite, captain.” A smooth, dark timbre filled her ears. “Ignoring me like some common water plant.” Pearl suddenly locked gaze with a pair of bright eyes. She caught a fanged, cheeky smile. The hands traced patterns just above her knee, tugging at Pearl’s boot laces.

Lapis laughed at her dumbfounded expression.

“I’m drunk,” Pearl said. “You’re not really here.”

“Rude.” Lapis started to undo the lengthy laces, a petulant pout stuck on her lips. Her shiny, glossy, inviting lips. Pearl hurriedly focused her gaze on the mold forming between the wooden slats of the dock. “Don’t I look real to you?”

“This is a little too fantastic for me to believe,” Pearl countered. She clutched her bottle of rum. It was the only thing keeping her grounded. Lapis’s cold, delicate fingers slid off her boot. “What are you doing?”

“Shoes are overrated. And I don’t want you to get them wet.” She plopped it on the dock next to Pearl and started on her other boot. “These look expensive. Leathery. A pain to dry out.”

“W-what?” Pearl tried to clear the haze of her mind.

Lapis rested her cheek on Pearl’s leg, smiled up at her while her hands worked. “Come swim with me.”

“Are you going to drown me?” Pearl asked outright. Perhaps even that was acceptable, if Lapis kept talking in that sweet tone.

“Oh, I have far too much fun with you to do that.” Lapis said. She pulled off the second boot, set it neatly aside, and set her arms and head on top of Pearl’s knees. She stared up at her with a dreamy expression. It startled Pearl. “There’s so much we have left to do.”

Pearl lifted the bottle to her lips again, but Lapis snatched it away. “Hey-” the captain’s protest died off when Lapis took a tentative sip of the drink. She wrinkled her nose and rolled the bottle off the deck.

“Disgusting,” she spat. “I’m doing you a favor.”

“Where have you been?” Pearl snapped. Lapis was too idly leaning in her lap. “I was worried for you. Do you know how much I… I’ve… missed you? How many times I’ve dreamt of you?”

“Oh, I have some idea,” Lapis teased, drumming her fingers against the inside of Pearl’s thigh. “I go wherever the current takes me, Pearl. I’ve missed you... I didn’t mean to be gone so long. Truly, I’m sorry.”

Pearl refused to look at her. “I thought you might be dead.”

They went silent after that. “I’m sorry. Did you miss me as much as I did you?”

Lapis looked at her, so heartfelt, so apologetic. Pearl sighed. She couldn’t stay mad.

“You have no idea how much.” She dipped a toe into the water, winced, shivering at the chill. She was slow to lower her feet, trying to get accustomed to the temperature. Then, with one swift motion, she slid off the dock and into the water.

Pearl let herself float, suspended, until she felt those arms curl around her. Through her watery eyes, she could see Lapis smiling up at her, holding her close. She threaded her fingers through the mermaid’s hair, cupped her face with reverence, and then kissed her.

Lapis made a gurgled, happy noise and Pearl tried not to laugh. Her body began to warm with Lapis’s lips and her playful hands, tugging at every part of her. Pearl was losing breath, but she didn’t mind.

Lapis pulled away, securing her hold on Pearl’s wrists, and brought them both up to the surface. They swam to shore, away from the harbor, beside the jagged cliff that held the lighthouse.

They lay there on the sand, tired and panting. “I could have just let you ride on my back and I’d swim us both here.” Lapis said, helping the heaving captain onto the sand. She sat back on her hands, tail gracing the tides, as her lover lay next to her.

“No way,” Pearl panted. She wrung out the ends of her drenched shirt. Her clothes hung heavy, stuck fast to her cold skin. “I wanted to see if I could keep up with you.”

“Well, it was a… cute attempt.” Lapis crooned. Pearl was still out of breath when Lapis kissed her again, hand bracing the back of her neck. She sighed as their lips slid together, and Lapis tugged at her collar to pull them closer together.

They pulled apart after a few more lingering kisses. The absence of warmth hit Pearl quite suddenly and she shivered. Lapis still had hands near her neck and they traced their way down her shirt.

Pearl gulped. “Lapis?” It had been a while since they had seen each other. Sometimes, Lapis pleasured her. Pearl had yet to return the favor, and Lapis had yet to be comfortable enough to let her. That was all right. Their arrangement worked just fine. And the thought of Lapis’s touch, maddening and glorious, made Pearl ache with want.

“You’re freezing. Let’s get you out of these clothes.” She did not meet Pearl’s gaze, but a warm blush spread across her cheeks. She hesitated, toying with one of the buttons. Waiting for permission.

“That’s a good idea.”

Pearl moved, this time. She kissed Lapis, long and deep, and she was left breathless. Lapis found purchase in tugging free the buttons of her shirt and finally pulling it off. Her hands graced Pearl’s chilled breasts, squeezing them softly.

“Hn…” She murmured into their kiss. A warmth filled her chest and branched off through the rest of her. Lapis worked her breasts thoroughly, tugging, kneading, pinching. Pearl returned the favor and groped her. She tweaked a nipple and Lapis let out a whimper. To her indignation, Pearl laughed.

“Stop- laughing-” Lapis gasped as Pearl did it again, rolling the bud between her fingers, then did the same to the other. She moaned outright, her tail writhing in the sand. Her hands slid up Pearl’s chest and clasped behind her neck.

“For a powerful queen of the sea,” Pearl kept her hands busy and let her mouth travel along Lapis’s jaw, sucking and kissing along the damp skin. “you’re not hard to unravel.”

Lapis whined again when Pearl’s teeth scraped her ear. “O-only… only with you.”

Pearl ceased her appreciation, and while her hands stilled on her waist, Lapis caught her breath. They sat there in the glory of morning, a moment of solace.

Lapis broke it by sticking her hand down Pearl’s pants.

“I told you,” she chided, stroking her with wicked precision, “for the clothes to come off.”

It was Pearl’s turn to sit there and moan. Lapis’s reach was a bit clumsy at first, but she got the hang of it quite fast. Pearl was facing Lapis up on her knees, legs spread, pants hastily undone just enough to let Lapis in. She gently rubbed Pearl’s clit with her thumb, pressing hard every so often to enjoy the startle of her hips. Her fingers scissored their way into her core, torturous, slow.

Pearl choked, gasped, face bright red. Lapis was always teasing. Even now, after they had been separated for so long, she wanted to draw it out, she wanted Pearl to wait. “How much longer are you going to keep me waiting, Lapis?”

Lapis gave her a cheeky kiss and nibbled at Pearl’s bottom lip, thrusting her fingers hard. “I like building you up like this. It makes your fall all the better.”

Lapis started to really move, now, heeding Pearl’s words. She thrust her fingers hard, coiled them back together, watching Pearl’s blissful expression. Every twitch of her digits earned a gasp, every thrust a moan, and when she stretched to find that one spot, Pearl’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and lost words to pleasure. “H-hah… Mh… La-apis…”

“As fun as this is…” Lapis retracted her hand before Pearl could finish.

“Lapis-” Pearl bit her bottom lip hard. “Please. Please. I can’t...” She shook, sinking onto the sand. “I need you.”

Lapis reassured her with a lingering kiss, brushing their tongues together. “I know, Pearl,” she whispered. “I know.”

Lapis pulled her pants the rest of the way off, discarded it next to her shirt, and then lay down on the sand. She took Pearl’s hand, instructing her to sit on her face.

Pearl focused her half-lidded eyes and sat bare above Lapis, legs on either side of her head. She tried to calm down, tried to stop shivering so much. “Come on,” Lapis cooed. Her hands gripped Pearl’s hips, guiding her into position above her mouth. “I want to taste you…”

Pearl went down, and Lapis went up, eager to sop up the excess left behind by her fingers. Pearl used all her effort to keep herself still as Lapis sampled her with long, heavy strokes of her tongue. “Yes...” Lapis groaned, stopping her lips right at Pearl’s clit.

She gave it a hard suck and Pearl cried out, “ _Lapis_!”

“Now _that’s_  what I like to hear.” Lapis continued to devour Pearl, her mouth working faster and harder and it was all too much for her. Her climax rolled over her in waves. Lapis’s tongue still strived to please her as she came down from her high. The aftershocks of euphoria left her in such a weak state, she collapsed on the sand as soon as Lapis crawled out from under her.

Pearl moved over to where Lapis dwelled at the edge of the tides. She opened her arms and Lapis curled close. “Do you want me to do anything?” Pearl asked, stroking a hand through her hair. “It’s fine if you still aren’t ready.”

Lapis smiled and kissed her. “No thank you. You’re very sweet, though. Right now, the only thing I want is to lay here with you.”

“We’re of like minds, then,” Pearl laughed. She curled her cold body closer to Lapis’s warm one. She felt scales lining up against her leg. When her arms wound around her, she could feel her clammy skin. So many varying sensations and textures. They were both so different. She could not forget that Lapis was not human.

It was hard to forget that she could not hold her like this forever. Hard to forget that they were not going to share the same lifespan. Hard to forget that Pearl was one link in a long chain of Lapis’s past and future lovers.

But.

Lapis was warm.

And that’s what mattered. Warmer as the rising sun on the horizon, and bright enough to chase away the dark shadows of her thoughts.

Pearl chose to remember her warmth.


End file.
